During their residency at Le Cube – independent art room in Rabat in May 2024, Vienna-based artists Irena Eden and Stijn Lernout explored the Lingua Franca Sabir, a Mediterranean contact language spoken between the 13th and 19th centuries.
Sociolinguist Joana Nolan describes the word fantasia as emblematic of Lingua Franca, shaped by the merging and mutual influence of diverse languages.
Nolan notes: “Perhaps the most iconic word in Lingua Franca is fantasia. It is mentioned by multiple sources spanning more than two centuries.
Although it appears to be a Romance word, Hugo Schuchardt (Romance philologist and linguist, 1842–1927) points out that it is used in the Arabic sense of pride.” (Mediterranean Lingua Franca, chapter 24, p. 543).

In their second residency at Le Cube in 2025, Eden and Lernout will examine the layered meanings of fantasia in a contemporary context. They will lead a workshop with young participants, using fantasia as a lens to envision the future.
Through collaborative collage-making and engagement with various literary excerpts, participants will shape aspirations into a multilingual choral text, culminating in a sound piece and video work reflecting Morocco’s fluid linguistic landscape.

Talk & Presentation
May 22, 6.30pm
at Le Cube – independent art room

This project is a collaboration between Le Cube and the Goethe-Institut Rabat and supported by the Austrian Embassy in Rabat.